Clara Cornelia Geertruida van Bekhoven
| Geslacht: | Vrouw | |
| Vader: | Jacobus Johannes van Bekhoven | |
| Moeder: | Henriette Wilhelmina Maria van den Elshout | |
| Geboren: | 29 MRT 1924 | |
| Aantekeningen: | Verhulst Clara (1924 - ? ) Personal Information Last Name: Verhulst First Name: Clara Cornelia Geertruida Maiden Name: Bekhoven van Date of Birth: 29/03/1924 Rescuer's fate: survived Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS Gender: Female Place during the war: Oosterhout, Noordbrabant, The Netherlands Rescue Place: Oosterhout, Noordbrabant, The Netherlands Rescue mode: Hiding File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/4147) Commemoration Date of Recognition: 07/05/1989 Righteous Commemorated with Tree/Wall of Honor: Wall of Honor Ceremony organized by Israeli diplomatic delegation in: The Hague, Netherlands Rescued Persons Handel van, Rooselaar, Betje Handel van, Machiel Handel van, Charles Handel van, Emile Rescue Story Bekhoven van, Jacobus Johannes & Henriette Wilhelmina Maria (van den Elshout) & Johannes Jacobus & Jacobus Johannes & Clara Cornelia Geertruida & Cornelia Clara Adriana In early 1941, when deportations from Amsterdam to Mauthausen were taking place, the Dutch Jewish community was terror stricken and the previously unimaginable fate of mass murder began to be considered a possiblity. Consequently, the four members of the van Handel family of Rotterdam, who had business contacts in Oosterhout, North Brabant, inquired among their colleagues about finding a suitable hiding place. Their friends recommended that they ask the van Bekhovens, who ran a guesthouse in the village and had an extra room for rent. The two families managed to come to an agreement. Initially, Emile van Handel, the first family member to move to Oosterhout, concealed his Jewish identity from his hosts. After a short time, on November 18, 1941, Emile traveled to Leiden, South Holland, to complete his final MA exams. When he returned to Oosterhout he decided to reveal his true identity to the van Bekhovens because he did not want to deceive the family, which was unwittingly breaking the law by sheltering a Jew in its home. Jacobus (Jacob) van Bekhoven was not alarmed by this declaration. He and his wife Henriette were anti-Nazi and were resolved to resist the increasingly oppressive edicts of the occupying power. Nevertheless, after the regulation forcing all Jews to wear the yellow star was enacted, Emile, concerned about the security of the van Bekhovens, returned to his family in Rotterdam. By the time he left Oosterhout, Emile had become very friendly with Jacob and Henriette's sons, Johannes and Jacobus, who were slightly younger than he. In July 1942, the mass deportations began and the situation of the Jews became even more precarious, Jacob invited the entire van Handel family to come and stay in his guesthouse. Emile and his older brother Charles were the first to arrive. The parents, Machiel and Betje van Handel, followed a few days later. Two months later, in September 1942, Jacob found a contact that was able to have the "J" removed from the van Handels' identity cards. The van Bekhovens lived on the outskirts of the village, which itself never ran out of food and was not actually occupied by the Germans. They were helped by their children, Johannes, Jacobus, Clara, and Cornelia, who all did everything they could to help the fugitives. During preparations for Jan's wedding, Jan, Clara, Emile, and Charles were stopped by the Grüne Polizei and their identity papers were checked. The Jewish brothers' false papers were not discovered but afterwards the van Bekhovens helped them procure new documents. All four members of the van Handel family lived to see the liberation of the area on October 30, 1944. On May 7, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Jacobus Johannes van Bekhoven, his wife, Henriette Wilhelmina Maria van Bekhoven-van den Elshout, and their children, Johannes Jacobus van Bekhoven, Jacobus Johannes van Bekhoven, Clara Cornelia Geertruida van Bekhoven, and Cornelia Clara Adriana van Bekhoven, as Righteous Among the Nations. |
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